


The Color of Wheat

by stifledlaughter



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, M/M, capriss2k16, laurent is a good uncle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 22:13:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8941462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stifledlaughter/pseuds/stifledlaughter
Summary: Laurent and Damen sit next to each other in the cafe they telework in, silently, after an abruptly awkward meeting on the first day. Slowly, slowly, and then all at once, Damen begins to learn about Laurent, and Laurent about Damen.(Or, to sum, Hardware store/Bedtime book reading/Romantic dinner/Korean bakery fun and fluff with the usual Laurent drama).





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Eva/philtaton in the Captive Prince 2016 Secret Santa Challenge! This was a very fun prompt to write! I creeped through the prompter’s tumblr for  
> inspirations on what they liked and worked them into the story. Hope you like it!  
> For clarification, spoken text in Italics is in French.

Damen looked around the coffee shop, searching for the flash of golden hair. 

Nothing.

He checked his phone again, scrolling past the influx of spam emails and texts from his minions on his work project. Nothing from Laurent.

Settling down into his chair, he twisted his mouth. He'd let himself get tamed. 

He shouldn't have let himself get tamed. 

(Roughly two months earlier)

Space for people in the cafe who worked during the day was limited. People who got in the door by 7:00 am definitely got the good chairs, while the 8:00 am crowd could squeeze in near the front, where the draft came in from the door. By 9:00 am, you were stuck in the upstairs corner slot in the back near the kitchen where they made the breakfast sandwiches and "artisanal bagels", with the whirring loud noises and the "I NEED A MULTIGRAIN" shouted up from below where the counter was served by the pulley system. 

Damen usually could make it in by 7:30am, if he could roll out of bed in time, usually woken up by his roommate Nik's alarm for work. Since he usually set up his "grab bag" of his laptop, reusable coffee mug, wallet, and keys the night before so he could stumble out of bed, brush his teeth, slide on some clothes, and try to get the good seats at the cafe. 

The new semester had started at the nearby university, and so Damen watched the change of students shift over, regretting some of the regulars that left (he had grown rather fond of one of them, Erasmus, a lovely young pre-med student who had been accepted to med school outside of the city). However, he was always curious to see what new crop of regulars would pop up.

Today he had managed to get one of the good chairs, and had started to arrange his workspace before he got up to order his coffee when he heard a thunk next to him. He turned to suddenly be blinded by stunning, golden hair. 

Fuck.

He had very few weaknesses that others could exploit. Nikandros knew that a well-brewed cappuccino in the early morning could convince Damen to drive him in if the metro was down. If there was a small child or animal in danger, Damen would probably go as out of his way as he could in order to help it. 

And then there were blonds. 

The blond in question had placed his black leather bag in the chair next to Damen and then started to unpack it. Damen was momentarily stunned by his sharp face, the brilliantly blue eyes, and perfectly arched eyebrows -  

"Have you never seen another human before, or are you so brutish that someone has to make loud noises to be noticed by you?"  

Damen startled a little bit and looked directly into the piercing eyes. Damen's ear for language told him that the young man was French, but not of Parisian origin - perhaps the southwest region. The blond stood back and assessed Damen, his hands going to his hips. Damen's eyes flickered down to see tight jeans held up by a thin chain belt, and had to resist a small breath out. _Shit shit shit. I sure as hell won't get any work done now._

"Oh. It doesn't speak. Good. Maybe I'll sit here more often."

That broke the spell. Damen snapped back in French, " _I speak your language better than you speak mine, sweetheart."_

There was a second of tense silence between them, and then the barista at the counter shouted out, "Laurent, cappuccino!"

Laurent paused, and looked like he was considering picking up his bags to move elsewhere. Damen held eye contact, still entranced by his appearance, but holding his ground. Blonds may be his weakness, but Damen wasn't about to let himself get insulted, no matter how hot the person was. 

Laurent went off to the counter, grabbed his drink, and came back, and stood, again looking at Damen. He placed his drink down, unpacked the rest of his things, and settled down in the chair. 

Day one. 

 

\--------

Day five.

 

It became a bit of a routine- at one point, Damen stopped asking other people around him to watch his bags when he went to the restroom, and just left it there next to Laurent instead. Laurent never did the same - he always packed up his laptop in his bag and only left his drink and napkins there when he went to the restroom to mark his spot. But for some reason, Damen felt comfortable leaving his bag next to Laurent. 

After a week and a half of sitting next to each other and not speaking, Damen broke the ice. "Okay. We've been sitting here for a while now, every day, next to each other. You clearly find me interesting enough to sit next to, but not to talk to. So. What gives?" 

Laurent didn't turn his head but instead slid his gaze over to Damen. He said nothing, and then moved his eyes back to looking at his laptop screen.

Damen huffed a sigh and turned back to his laptop. The architecture plans he was working on for the new courthouse to be built to replace the old one in town were coming together, but he still was fighting with his team on the details. He'd struck out on his own, and while sometimes he wondered if he would have been happier in the family business, he felt happier creating things, and seeing them one day come into formation in front of him, stories high and made with stone to last the ages. Besides, he couldn't go back to the family business anyway, even if he wanted to.

He was scrolling through images of his last trip to southern Europe to get inspiration for his next project when he saw Laurent's phone light up. It didn't have a ring tone but buzzed, and the name "Auguste" flashed across the screen. Given that the man on the screen selfie was blonde, grinning, and tightly hugging a gently smiling Laurent, Damen hazarded the man was either a brother or very eerily similar looking lover. 

" _Salut. Non, je suis au café. Oui, à côte de lui._ " ("Hey. No, I'm at the cafe. Yes, next to him.") Laurent's eyes flicked over to Damen, clearly knowing he spoke French, but not really caring. " _I'll come by to get Ally after her ballet class. I'm almost done with work anyway."_

This was the most personal information he had heard about Laurent aside from his name, so Damen shamelessly listened in. There was a child, Ally, and Laurent seemed to be regularly involved in her life. Likely a niece. If he hadn't seen Laurent smiling in the photo, he wouldn't have imagined the young man could smile. 

Laurent hung up the phone and started to type again. Damen commented lightly, "So he knows that I sit next to you." 

Laurent's mouth quirked and the typing paused. Damen wondered if this time, he would say anything, but instead, Laurent returned to typing. 

But he came back again the next day. 

 

\------

 

Day eleven. 

 

Damen could count the times on one hand that he had somehow accidentally touched Laurent so far in the nearly two weeks they had been sitting in the same spot next to each other on the weekdays. 

The first time, Damen had been so focused on work that he had reached for the wrong drink - and ended up brushing Laurent's hand, who was reaching for the drink at the same time. Laurent's hand zipped back to his laptop, Damen stammered out an apology, and they said nothing.

The second time, Damen had gotten up to go to the bathroom (of course, leaving his materials there, because Laurent's aura was clearly enough to tell any potential thief to fuck off) and his knee had brushed Laurent's when he got up. Laurent had quickly moved it out of the way, and Damen noticed he scootched a little to the side when Damen returned-  but did not leave. 

The third time, it was Laurent who made the gesture that caused the accidental touch. Laurent's laptop cord had become loose with constant plugging and unplugging, so it slipped out. As Laurent bent under the table to get the cord and plug it back in, his hand grazed Damen's thigh as he came back up. Damen started, and almost embarrassingly spilled his coffee on himself as Laurent came up with a bit of a smirk on his face. 

The fourth time, however, was the most notable - it was when Damen dropped his wallet, and it landed on Laurent's "side". Careful to not invade his space, Damen debated between asking Laurent to hand it to him or asking Laurent to move when Laurent picked it up, made eye contact, and pressed the wallet into Damen's hand. 

"Thanks," said Damen, not sure if this was progress, or just basic human politeness. Which, oddly enough, they had been eschewing for the past two weeks, as the normal "hellos" and "goodbyes" were conspicuously absent for two people who sat next to each other for eight hours a day. 

Laurent held the eye contact a second longer, and then looked away, back to his computer. 

For some reason, Damen considered that a success. 

 

 

\--------

 

Day seventeen.

 

Damen had needed to stop by the hardware store after working to pick up some pieces for shelving (he and Nikandros had finally broken down and agreed that they needed to put up shelving in the laundry room, as piling clothes on the floor was starting to feel less acceptable the further they got away from being "college-aged"). Looking at the list in his hand that Nik gave him, he muttered, "What the hell are _toggle bolts_..." and then turned the list upside-down, hoping he had just read it wrong.

" _Ally, don't touch that. You'll hurt yourself."_

_"Ugh... okay, Laurent."_

Damen whipped his head around, and leaned over into the next aisle to see a small, exceedingly blonde child stepping back from a wall of garden shears. A little keychain of a worn, soft fox swung on her jeans belt loop, and it shook as she bounced from item to item on the wall. Next to her was Laurent, who was looking over a package of coiled wires for hanging pictures. Instantly Damen noted the family similarities - the startlingly blond hair, the blue eyes, and sharp nose, even on the little girl. 

Ally looked up and saw Damen, and said excitedly to Laurent, " _Look! He is like a mountain!"_

Damen snorted and Laurent stopped looking at the package to look over and him, and his eyes widened briefly in shock. "You!" 

Ally looked between them as a huge grin spread across her tiny face. " _Laurent! Is he your boyfriend?"_

Laurent's face looked like it wanted to be pained but was too elegant to do so. " _No, Ally. Let's go check out. Go up to the counter and pick out some candy."_

Distracted by the promise of candy, Ally zipped away, leaving a small pile of items in her wake that she had been playing with. Laurent started to clean them up, and Damen sidled up next to him to help.

"So, that's Ally." 

Laurent put the keychains that Ally had scattered on the floor. "You just don't give up, do you?" 

"A question! Someone is rather talkative today." 

Laurent sighed and straightened up, putting the last of the items yanked off the wall back onto their hooks. "Alright. I give in. What do you want, Damianos?" 

Damen started to open his mouth to say he just wanted a friendly chat with the person he sits next to while working for the past twp weeks, but then realized - "Wait, how do you know my full name?" 

Laurent met his confused gaze and said, "Damianos d'Akielos, former heir to the Ios Software corporation, left the company just as it bought out Arles Data Systems through a rigged deal. Yes, I know who you are."

Confused, defensive, and absolutely bewildered about how Laurent knew all of this, Damen blurted out what he had been holding in for the past two years about the entire scandal, "I left because Kastor cut me out of the will after my dad died. I didn't know he was going to do it. I was helpless - I couldn't do anything to stop the deal from going through." 

Laurent's eyes burned as he said, "That's not what I heard."

Damen's chest was constricted, his stomach twisting as the things he had been dying to tell the people who blamed him for it for years bubbled to the surface. "Then I don't know what to tell you. But I wasn't involved in what Kastor did, or how he went through the CFO instead of the CEO." 

Laurent's face looked, for the first time since Damen had seen him, doubtful. He backed up, his eyes still burning with anger - but maybe not directed at Damen for the moment. "The CFO?"

Damen was stunned. "Yeah. The CFO. But why do you care?" 

Then something clicked. 

French origin. Blond hair. He remembered seeing a man in Kastor's office, the yawning, huge doors shutting as Damen tried to demand the truth from Kastor. But the security guards had hauled him out and thrown him on the sidewalk, where he stayed in shock until he called Nik. Nik dragged his sorry ass home and they figured out where his life would go after Ios. 

"You're..."

" _Laurent?"_ Ally poked her head around the corner. " _I picked my candy. Can we go now?"_

" _Be right there,"_  said Laurent, who didn't stop looking at Damen. "We'll talk about this later."

"Actually talking?"

"Actually talking."

Ally grabbed Laurent's hand and tugged on it. " _Bye, mountain man."_

They vanished behind the shelves and Damen stood there, still, questions he had had about Laurent slowly being answered. 

Auguste de Vere's little brother. It had to be him. He had known there were more siblings to the de Vere name but he had never met them. He actually had never met Auguste either, only heard his name through the legal battles when Kastor stripped him of all of his assets and inheritance in the will and sent him into the street without a penny from the Ios coffers. He'd seen a few pictures in some business magazines, and it all seemed to match up.  

It was two years ago,  but little Ally looked to be four, maybe a small five. He hadn't known Auguste had children at the time the deal went through. All he knew was that Kastor had managed to secure Arles Data Systems for a ridiculous price, a price that would ruin all of the employees currently working there, and had taken the chance. Damen, at this point, had been cut out, apparently from the second his father's last breath escaped into the air. 

Tomorrow. Wednesday. For the first time since they awkwardly settled next to each other, he would talk to Laurent.  

He just wished it could have been a bit lighter of a topic. 

\-----

 

Day eighteen.

 

They sat down in the same chairs, same coffee orders, same laptop setup. Damen wondered who would start. 

But once Laurent's cappuccino hit the table, and Laurent turned to Damen. "Tell me everything you know that happened." 

_It's always fun to start a morning with immense pain._ "My father died two years ago in late March. I was set to take over the company - had been training for it my whole life. I'd have his advisers to guide me but he wanted me at the helm of the ship, really. But my brother managed to get my father to sign off on some will changes, and he had snuck in there that he was the head of the company after my father's death and I was cast out for being a liability to the company. He buried it in a bunch of legalese that I didn't even know he knew. He must have hired some insanely good lawyer.  

"After that, I took the classes I needed to do architecture and worked my way up to project manager at Kyros Architects." He sighed and drank more of his burning hot cappuccino than his tongue appreciated. "So... that's what I have. I think I almost saw your brother, Auguste, in my father's - I guess Kastor's now - office once but that's when security was throwing me out for arguing with my brother about the will."

Laurent remained quiet, his eyes narrowed with thought. "How can I trust that you're telling me the truth?" 

"I have no other reason to lie? I haven't spoken to my brother that I grew up with and loved in two years? I had my whole life set up to be CEO of Ios only to be ripped away from me in a matter of days?" Damen flipped open his laptop. "That's all I've got. I'm making the best of it now."

Laurent pressed on. "The CFO and CEO thing you mentioned. 

Damen had to think for a moment. "Right. Apparently Kastor sidestepped talking to the CEO and went to the CFO first. I only heard this through Nik, my roommate who also was fired when the company bought out Arles. I think they didn't like how close he was to me. Nik was an assistant in the advisory board and heard around that the CFO arranged the entire thing and cut the CEO out of the merger."

Laurent grabbed his phone. "Watch my stuff." And he was gone in a flash. 

Even in the midst of drowning in memories of his life being turned upside down and shaken out like a vacuum cleaner bag, he still still felt a slight tingle of happiness that Laurent trusted him with his items.

After five minutes or so, Damen figured Laurent would be outside for a while, so he did some busywork, answering emails and skimming over designs sent by his team. It wasn't until he had stopped doing busywork and started doing real work, about fifteen minutes later, that Laurent came back in. "Can you take a half a day off?"

Damen knew he could, but hesitated. "Wait, why?" 

"You have to tell this to Auguste yourself."

 

\---------------------------

 

That's how Damen ended up at a small but cozy apartment with Ally running the little fox keychain over his thigh going **"** _Vrroooomm_ " softly, sometimes saying, " _Up the mountain! You can do it!"_  to the fox. Damen let this happen because he had to run with it, just like he had to run with everything going on at the moment.

Laurent and Auguste were in the kitchen, murmuring softly in French, but not loud enough for Damen to catch it. He contented himself with watching Ally play out a very dramatic scene at the top of the "mountain" with a little Star Trek figurine of Spock.

After a few minutes of a very emotional Spock begging the fox to run away with him forever (Damen felt this was a recurring theme based on how well scripted Ally was babbling on) Laurent and Auguste came out of the kitchen, the latter balancing a tray of tea and some cookies. "Hey, Damen." 

"Auguste, right?" A dumb question, but at this point, Damen figured he had no idea what was going on and couldn't assume anything.

Auguste set the tray down on the coffee table covered in drawings made with glitter crayons. Damen noted that some of the drawings were far better than others, and he wondered if it was Auguste or Laurent that had sat next to Ally and drew with her. 

"That's me. We never met, but..." His face was handsome, chiseled, but also warm and friendly, like someone you'd trust late at night in a train station for directions.  He had long hair that was slightly wavy and drawn back in a ponytail as opposed to the choppy cut that Laurent seemed to prefer. 

"Look, I never... I wasn't a part of it. I swear. I went from hearing my father was dead in the hospital to being thrown out of the headquarters by security guards." 

Auguste visibly blanched. "Oh god. I hadn't heard that. They said you took your cut of the money and ran off, leaving your brother to deal with the mess." 

Damen almost swore in anger but realized that little Ally was now running Spock up his back and whistling the theme song to the TNG Star Trek and that he should not be ruining such young minds. "I- yeah. That isn't true."

Laurent said nothing but instead sat down on the floor next to Damen and picked up one of the other figures on the floor, a tiny Uhura, and handed it over to Ally, who dropped Spock and began an entirely new melodrama on Damen's back. 

"Well, I don't know what you heard after, but I took it hard the few months after- my uncle cut me out of the entire deal, and as CFO he had signing rights to our contracts, and he had gotten my consent to a different deal but used the same papers or something - all I know is that he cut me out too. After I found out and was banned from our headquarters, I had to take Ally and make do." 

"Where is..." But as soon as he said it, Damen knew. 

"Six months after Ally was born." Auguste's voice was very soft, and very low, as Ally now brought Spock into the mix again in a very creative prototypical polyamory discussion. Damen wondered how much English she spoke, or if she specifically had to turn "on" the English in her mind in order to process it, but still understood the respect Auguste had for her feelings. 

"So I got a job doing accounting at a local firm, and managed to look for this apartment while crashing at Laurent's. He took it pretty well for such a control freak." Auguste ruffled Laurent's hair, who pursed his lips and blew a raspberry at Auguste. "And now he lives just a few minutes away walking, so getting him to babysit for Ally is a piece of cake. She just adores him."

Damen felt like he had been punched in the chest by the scene he just saw and how utterly adorable Laurent looked when he wasn't scowling. He hadn't realized he had let out a soft sigh until Ally went, " _Stop breathing, you'll make Fox fall off of the mountain!"_

" _Ally, people have names. His name is Damianos,"_ chided Auguste. 

" _Actually, Damen works better. Damianos is a bit long."_  He turned so that Ally could have more access to his back, and she happily began to braid his hair.

"Sorry," apologized Auguste. "She can get a bit... excited when there are new people in the apartment. It's usually just Laurent and I over here, when I'm not at at work or with friends." 

"I don't mind," said Damen. "So do you know what happened after your uncle sold Arles?" 

"He took the entire profit and ran off. Bit of the law chasing him too, apparently." Laurent's face grimaced, and he looked away as Auguste said this. "But we didn't hear much about that."

"Damen, do you know anything else about what happened?" asked Laurent, who became the focus of attention when Ally lost interest in Damen's hair and leaned over to begin another epic confession between the fox and Spock on his legs (decked out in of course dark jeans that Damen tried not to stare at too long.) 

"Not really. I've been trying to stay out of it for the most part. Hurts too much to deal with otherwise."  He had gone to some therapy after it happened, once he got some healthcare (due to losing his when he was booted out of the company). The therapist had been sympathetic and listened, but he felt odd describing this huge aspect of his life, this drama, to an unattached stranger. Most of all, he wanted to talk to the very person in front of him - Auguste, who had taken the brunt of the pain from it happening, although Laurent likely felt the effects of it too. He wasn't set to inherit the company but if something had happened to Auguste, Laurent would have. 

Auguste nodded. "Alright."

There was a silence that was then broken by a gentle " _But no, Mr. Spock! It was you! It was always both of you! Let's run away together!"_ from Ally. 

"I don't know where she gets her imagination from," commented Auguste as she began to reenact a scene involving a discussion of roses. "It's probably the books that Laurent reads to her."

"The Little Prince is a classic and you know she loves it," said Laurent as he picked up one of her toys, the Fox, and started to play along in French. 

"He reads her that book constantly," said Auguste, smiling fondly at the two. Damen had not seen Laurent look so happy or cheerful yet, but playing with his niece, he seemed positively _fond_  of another human being. If it weren't for the photo of him and Auguste and this moment, Damen would have probably agreed that Laurent did not have a soul, and if he did, it was locked away, screaming in his chest, and repressed with a cold iron fist.

_Simmer down there, Damen._

_"Damen! Damen! Read to me! You can do the voices,"_ said Ally, and while he wasn't the best with kids, having Ally in the room seemed to cool off tensions that could have arisen with the breaching of the buyout topic. 

Damen flipped through the book - it was The Little Prince that Laurent had mentioned. "I've never read this." 

Auguste grinned and settled down. "Oh it was Laurent's favorite as a child. We even called him The Little Prince. The little fox toy Ally carries around was his. He insisted we buy it so he could have his own fox to tame." 

"Do you have to bring this up every time she asks someone to read the book?" inquired Laurent dryly. 

"It was once, and Halvik thought it was charming." 

"Halvik?" asked Damen.

"My girlfriend. We met at my job after the merger. I was really down, you know, right, so I took on a temp job while I looked around and she ended up helping me get a permanent position, and we just clicked." Auguste pulled out his phone and showed a background of him, Laurent, and a strong, smiling women with long brown hair as the lockscreen.

  
_So we're not going to avoid talking about it in normal conversation then. Well that's a bit of relief._ It had been a hard, painful rock in his chest for two years, and talking to someone else who had been hurt by it made him feel immensely better. 

Ally poked his arm. " _You can be everyone but the Little Prince. That's Laurent's voice."_

Damen looked up at Auguste, who laughed. "Time to read, Damen."

Ally leaned her head against Damen's bicep, and turning to page one, he began to read. 

As he read, he noted how into the character Laurent got, almost like playacting, and that Ally clearly knew the particular scenes and voices he was doing. She would start to ramp up in excitement for some parts, and cuddle down fearfully into the blanket she had amassed at Damen's legs in other parts. 

The Little Prince, traveling to all of the planets, had run into a fox on earth. Damen assumed this is why there was the fox toy that Ally clung to. They had gotten to the part where the fox and the Little Prince were speaking about roses, and how the Little Prince's rose back on his home planet was the most important rose of all, as he had cared for her and watered her and listened to her. This, according to the fox, is what made the rose special, the time and care put into it - in essence, she had "tamed" the Little Prince. Ally stared in rapt attention at Laurent and Damen, who played the parts back and forth as the two characters discussed "taming". 

_"But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me!"_ said Damen as the fox. _"The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat..."_ He read the descriptive text and then, face warming as he saw what came next, choked out as calmly as possible, " _Please- tame me!_ " 

Auguste restrained a snort and opted instead to cough into his arm instead. 

Ally squirmed and shoved her face into Damen's bicep and giggled. " _Laurent! It's you now!"_

" _I know, Ally. I've read this more than you have,"_ he replied, but his voice was light as he read on. _"I want to, very much, but I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."_

Ally flopped over and poked Damen, clearly eager to hear the next part. 

_"One only understands the things that one tames,"_ said Damen as the fox. _"Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."_ He wondered what kind of friendships Laurent had out of Auguste and his family. After realizing that Laurent had only approached him at the shop and sat next to him because he knew who Damen was, everything seemed slightly off kilter. He wasn't sure, after this, what would happen between him and Laurent. 

_"What must I do, to tame you?"_ asked Laurent, and Damen blushed. Thanking his complexion for hiding it, he focused on the next part. 

_"You must be very patient,"_ read Damen steadily, trying to alter his voice slightly so it didn't feel like he was saying it. _"First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that-- in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."_

Auguste coughed again and didn't even stifle his laughter at that. Laurent shifted his eyes at Auguste, who quickly shut up and busied himself picking up some of Ally's toys. 

And then Damen understood. 

 

\---------------------------------

 

Day twenty-five

 

After that, Damen and Laurent continued to sit next to each other at the coffee shop. Now that the secrets were gone between them, Laurent became no less prickly but somewhat more at ease, and even, in one startlingly bold move on day nineteen, steadied Damen with his hand when Damen bent over to plug in his laptop.

By the twenty-second day, Laurent would pick up Damen's drink order along with his own and bring it over and set it down. 

A little closer, every day. 

 

\----------------------------------

 

Day thirty

 

"I'd like to take you out on a date," said Damen as Laurent put down their two drinks in front of him. 

"Why?" Laurent's voice, which had been slowly getting more at ease and playful with Damen, abruptly turned back into the ice from when they'd first met.

Damen furrowed his brow. "Clearly to lure you somewhere and murder you, based on your reaction."

"If you want sex, you're going to be waiting a while," said Laurent sharply. His fingers were white-knuckled, wrapped around his coffee cup. 

"That's fine," replied Damen.

Laurent seemed briefly flustered, and then said, "Well, okay. We'll see how long that lasts."

Damen snorted. "You don't think I can keep it in my pants for a few more dates?" 

Laurent frowned, and then said, "We'll see." After a beat, he added, "I pick the place. Loyse's Café, tonight, dinner, 7?" 

"Sounds like a plan." Damen tried to restrain the joy brimming over the edge in his voice. Laurent, on the other had, had a mixed look of apprehension but also excitement. 

_Don't fuck this up,_  Damen thought to himself as they settled next to each other. Laurent's elbow bumped his- and then stayed touching. 

_Words are the source of misunderstanding..._

_\------------------_

 

Loyse's Café was a small, cozy café, with comfy chairs and chandeliers with sparkly Christmas ornaments hanging from the arms. The lighting dimmed in the evening to create a warm, languid atmosphere with gentle fork clinking and conversation in the background.

"So I assume your family moved over here to DC from France for the business?" asked Damen after they had ordered. They were squished into a little booth in the corner, Damen leaning back with a local craft beer, Laurent nursing a flavored Italian soda. 

"You don't find it odd to discuss the circumstances that caused both of our families so much pain?" asked Laurent wryly, his fingers tapping the smooth, worn wooden table. 

"If we don't face it head on, it'll follow us around and haunt us forever." 

Laurent looked genuinely surprised at this comment from Damen. "Well then. Yes, I was twelve and my brother was sixteen when our headquarters shifted to DC. We'd go back and summer in Bordeaux but I started calling DC home after a while." 

"You respect Auguste a lot," prompted Damen. This was a little painful for him - he had looked up so much to Kastor, even though he was the one prepping to take the company. He had always imagined Kastor as one of his council of advisors, since Nik was his right hand man. The image he had - Kastor on one side, Nik on the other, keeping the company thriving - had faded into a fuzzy, distant memory. 

"Auguste is the only family I have, besides Ally now. My parents died young, and we were taken in by my uncle." Immediately the tone of the conversation changed, and Laurent was reverting back to the coolness, detached. Damen steered the topic gently away. 

"So now that you don't work at the company, what do you do?" Damen had politely avoided looking at Laurent's laptop for the month they'd sat next to each other, but had mostly seen endless Word documents and spreadsheets. 

"Law. I work in copyright law, mostly. I would have done it for the company anyway, under Auguste, but there's plenty of other work out there." He took a sip of his water, and Damen tried to not stare at his slim throat and delicate hands. "And you do architecture. By the way, you really ought to transfer that new intern Jess, you know. The other person who applied for the internship had less experience but knew how to work in an office setting with clients, which is most of what you do. That'll be invaluable as you're wasting training time on this Jess person who honestly would be happier in the Design versus Construction Administration. You're good with your workers but he wanted it too badly and didn't realize what he actually wanted was Design. Makedon will be glad to take him off your hands and put him to Design work."

Damen started openmouthed. 

Laurent took another sip. "I'm right, aren't I? You knew he would fit in with the company, but not where." 

"You listened to my phone calls."

"You were sitting next to me." 

"I didn't think... I didn't you cared at all about what I said." _If I recall correctly, at the time when I hired this intern and had my doubts, you hadn't really spoken to me yet..._

Laurent continued to tap his fingers on the wood. Slower, more thoughtful. "I wanted to see what kind of person you were. That's why I sat next to you. I recognized you from the files I looked up on you and the company while the negotiations were going on. I was powerless at the time, of course, so all I could do was give Auguste all of the information I had on you. Which... was mostly pretty boring, actually. The most interesting part was how you weren't a complete idiot."

"Thanks," said Damen, not really hearing that last part due to wondering what else Laurent had catalogued away. Of course he didn't mind - after all, had it truly been private, he would have gone in the bathroom or in the alley behind the cafe - but he had no idea Laurent could remember all of that. 

Laurent looked down at his hands. Long, delicate. _Piano fingers_ , Damen thought to himself. 

"You aren't an asshole to the employees. The anonymous peer reviews have always been glowing. Your reviews of your staff were honest and fair. If sometimes a bit naive. Especially of your brother."

Damen bristled at that but then knew that, deep down, Laurent was right. It just hurt to think about. "How did you get into those? They're confidential."

Laurent smirked and took another sip. His lips glistened and forgot what it was like to be annoyed at Laurent.

He was sure he would remember momentarily. 

"So... you're not who I thought you were going to be." A pause. "So... I... want to get to know who you are." 

It was the most sincere thing Laurent had said since they'd met. 

Damen didn't get a chance to answer, as at that moment the waitress came by and set down their food. They dug in and then continued to talk about Auguste, Ally, their work, and the people they were now. 

 

\--------------------

 

Day forty-five

 

They had gone on two more dates since the cafe. Once was Laurent's choice - a cheese tasting, where he avoided the wine accompanying, as did Damen out of respect, but they had a good time regardless - and then Damen's choice, the mini-golf and batting cages, where Laurent excelled at the mini golf but didn't quite have the enthusiasm Damen had at batting cages. 

Lately Damen had been taking more and more business calls outside, as it was getting crowded as midterms were happening and local students were (loudly) flocking to the cafe to study for the tests. Laurent held his chair, and Damen got a small spark of happiness every time he came back and Laurent's hand was protectively resting on the seat, even though it was clearly marked by Damen's coffee and laptop. 

This time it was not Laurent's choice, and not Damen's, but in a weird twist of fate, Nik's. 

Damen handed Laurent the giftcards Nik had given him. "Work was giving these out and Nik got a ton. Says he can't possible eat that many pastries without throwing up. Wanna go?"

Laurent read the café name and raised an eyebrow at Damen. "Really?"

"You're going to turn down free food?"

Laurent shrugged. "Let's go." 

And that's how they ended up at Breeze Bakery Café just outside of DC, in the Korean immigrant neighborhood. It was a lovely place, Damen had to admit, and while he normally didn't liberally apply the word "cute" to anything, it was impossible to describe it as anything but. 

They looked at the menu for a bit, Laurent settling on the bulgogi quesadillas, Damen on the Jeyukbokkeum (spicy pork) quesadilla. 

"What kind of drink are you getting?" Damen asked Laurent. "Not gonna lie, I'm kind of overwhelmed." 

"Taro bubble tea," responded Laurent. 

Damen blinked. He had expected a bit more time with deciding, but Laurent seemed to already have scanned the menu and made his decision. "Um... I'll do the Green Tea bubble tea." 

They ordered and wandered the bakery portion of the cafe while waiting for their food. Damen laughed when Laurent expressed his outrage at the "Zebra Croissant" that was a chocolate croissant covered in oreos as well as white and black chocolate. 

"It's... it's an abomination of a croissant," insisted Laurent as Damen laughed helplessly. They ended up getting the Zebra Croissants and some baked goods for Auguste and Ally. 

Once their food was called, they headed upstairs where gentle K-pop was playing and little old Korean ladies were drinking bubble tea and talking in speedy Korean. They settled on the balcony and watched the cars maneuver the parking lot below them. 

"So The Little Prince," said Damen, watching Laurent cut his quesadilla into exact pieces and slowly eat. "Your favorite book growing up?"

"What amazing deductive skills, Damianos." Laurent took a sip of his bubble tea. "Yes."

Damen decided to go for it. "So did you see Auguste as a king, and you as The Little Prince?"

Laurent, as he always did when Auguste or Ally was brought up, visibly relaxed. "I ... yes, I suppose. Doesn't quite align with the book plot, but I made up my own stories for after the book ended. I favored the fox toy. It's not directly The Little Prince merchandise but Auguste got it for me when he was at the zoo once with a girlfriend. I... grew attached."

"But then you gave it to Ally," prompted Damen.

"She insisted. She can be quite persuasive." 

"Like her uncle." 

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

"It's gotten me here."

Laurent paused. "Yes. Yes it has." He always seemed slightly surprised when Damen could catch him in his speedy retorts. 

They continued their conversation, shifting to Damen's time working on a goat farm one summer in Crete ("We have an aunt there, and they figured some manual labor would make me respect an office job." "Final verdict on goats?" "They will really eat _anything_.") As the sun set and their quesadillas were long finished, Damen gestured to his car. "I'll take you back to your place."  

With their bags of pastries for Ally and Auguste, they headed back, Laurent commenting on Damen's music choice ("One minute it's symphonic metal, the next it's shitposting meme songs." "I am vast. I contain multitudes.") This lead to a discussion on first concerts, and Laurent was insistent that him attending the Paris Orchestra was indeed a "real concert" and that Damen's Edenbridge and Nightwish concert was in no way more valid just because Damen claimed "It was probably a hell of a lot louder and more fun". 

"I'd offer to let you come in and give Ally the abomination croissant, but she's asleep," said Laurent. "And if you wake her up she won't sleep until you read her a story and then it's all shot to hell." 

"So... til tomorrow then?" asked Damen, and as Laurent remained in the car, hand clenching the bag of pastries, he realized that Laurent was silently asking for something. Something he'd been wanting to give, or take, either way. Laurent leaned a little bit, fidgeting with his wallet, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear, not making a move to get out of the car. 

Now? 

Now.

Damen slowly moved towards Laurent, very cautiously, careful to check and see if his seatbelt was already undone from when they stopped so Laurent didn't feel trapped. Once he was sure of that, he gently put his hand on Laurent's, leaned forward, and softly kissed him. 

Laurent was stock-still, eyes closed, but not moving away. Experimentally Damen pressed a little more, squeezing Laurent's hand gently. He pulled back very slightly to nuzzle the side of Laurent's face, and then went in for another kiss- 

"It'sgettinglateandI'dbetterletAugusteknowI'mokaygreatlater," blurted out Laurent, and he hurled open the car door and fumbled out, sprinting towards Auguste's apartment. 

Damen sat there in the car, stunned. 

What had he done wrong? 

 

\-----------------------------------

 

Day forty-six

 

Damen anxiously waited at their usual seats: coffee ordered, laptop open, feelings out. 

Laurent hadn't shown up.

He thought he'd read the signs right. Laurent had stayed in the car. Laurent had leaned towards him. They'd had a great night. 

Hours passed, and Laurent did not come.

 

\-------------------------------------

 

Day forty-eight

 

_"Hey, I'm sorry if I freaked out you. I thought I knew what I was doing. It looks like I didn't. I'm really sorry. Can we talk it out?"_

No response.

Laurent didn't show up at the cafe the entire week. 

 

\-------------------------------------

 

Day fifty-two

 

Damen was looking at the list of groceries Nik had written down, squinting at the terrible hand-writing, when he heard from across the grocery store, " _Mountain man!"_

He turned just as a small flumph hit him in the shin, and looked down to see Ally down there, eyes huge. " _Mountain man!"_

" _It's Damen, Ally, we have discussed this_ ," said Auguste, who trailed up behind her. "Sorry. We're working on social skills." He frowned. "Next week, personal space will be on the list."

"Hey, now that I have you here..." Damen started, but then trailed off, not sure how to ask.

"Look, I don't know exactly what happened, but I got a pretty good guess. Laurent really doesn't date, and he probably took something totally normal and was really weird about it. Right?" Damen nodded. "He really doesn't date, I have to say it again, but don't give up. He really likes you. I could tell when he was telling me he'd found you by chance at the cafe and could tell you weren't a heinous awful person after a while. He actually said you seemed like an adequate human being after the first week or two."

"High praise."

"From him? The highest."

Damen sighed. "He hasn't responded to my text."

Auguste grimaced a bit. "He's being an idiot. I'll talk to him. He listens to me." 

Ally began to slowly climb Damen's leg, and that was when the conversation changed to how We Do Not Do That To People, and the talk about Laurent faded. 

But Damen's resparked hope began to burn again. 

 

\---------------------------------------------------

 

Day fifty-four

 

Damen looked around the coffee shop, searching for the flash of golden hair. 

 

 

Nothing.

He checked his phone again, scrolling past the influx of spam emails and texts from his minions on his work project. Nothing from Laurent.

Settling down into his chair, he twisted his mouth. He'd let himself get tamed.  

He shouldn't have let himself get tamed.  

Draping his arm over the chair where Laurent normally was, letting the quiet despair of acceptance wash over him, He sighed.  

And then he heard a voice from behind him.  

"Your arm is on my chair. Are you holding it for someone else?" 

Damen jerked up in his seat, and saw Laurent there, uncomfortably stiff, but holding his coffee and motioning for Damen to move his arm.

"You didn't respond to my text," Damen blurted out. "I thought you were... done with me."

Laurent looked incredibly pained and uncomfortable but spit out the words, haltingly. "I... do not do well... with dating. This. I want to, but it's... really hard." He placed his coffee cup down and twisted his fingers around each other. "Can we try again?" 

Damen smiled, and the warmth in his chest bloomed. "Yeah. I'd really like that." 

Laurent took a deep breath, set his laptop bag down, and suddenly went in right for Damen, kissing him, his hands gripping Damen's hands, in the middle of a the crowded coffee shop. 

Damen, stunned but completely into it, kissed back, smiling widely as Laurent pulled back. "How was it?" Laurent asked, cautiously, breathless. 

"Perfect," said Damen, and he realized that, in that moment, he quite liked being tamed. 


End file.
